About twenty percent of marine vessels accidents are caused by a vessel running aground when it is unintentionally grounded on reefs, shores, shallow waters, and other static hazards. It is so frequent, second only to ship-on-ship collision. Running aground might lead to human injuries and casualties, structural damage, cargo falling, total loss of the marine vessel, insurance financial claims and the like. Even with modern navigation systems, new technologies, and improved safety measures, maritime accidents still occur, and ship groundings are one of the more frequent types of accidents.
Human errors are the main cause of running aground accidents. Even professional navigators suffer from human errors caused by lack of communication, lookout errors, analysis errors, fatigue, and the like.
Prior to the global positioning systems (GPS) and electronic maps, navigation was done solely based on nautical charts, which were plotted/drafted on paper. Digitizing of nautical charts led to the development of Electronic Nautical Charts (ENC). There are two main types of ENCs, the raster chart and the vector chart. While the first is merely a scanned version of the earlier paper navigational charts discussed, the second is more data oriented. Though hidden, the data at a particular position is instantly given when sought (with a click of the mouse or pressing a button). The vector chart ENC is provided by navigational software, such as, Electronic Chart Display Information System (ECDIS). The chart plotter ENC displays on the chart: the position, heading direction and speed of the ship, and may display additional information from a radar, automatic information systems (AIS) or other sensors. In recent years, some applications added “smart dynamic alerts” in which the application is calculating the risk of collision based on the chart data and the ship movement vector and alerts accordingly.